New formula of vegetation roughness height and Darcy–Weisbach friction factor in channel flow

Abstract

Assessing the flow resistance caused by vegetation in rivers is a hot topic in the field of hydraulics and eco-hydrology. Based on mathematical experiments by first-order closure models, new roughness height of vegetation is proposed linked with the three factors that vegetation arrangement concentration, submergence ratio, and the ratio of width to height of vegetation. Besides, new Darcy–Weisbach friction factor is built for vegetated flow. Moreover, both collected and present experimental data are adopted for verification of the roughness height and friction factor. Compared with models from other research groups, results show that the new formulas proposed in this study have high accuracy for predicting vegetation resistance in ecological restoration and water resources management in rivers.